Man accused of homeless slayings appears in court

LOS ANGELES 
A suspected gang member charged with the murders of five people in a homeless encampment has made his initial court appearance in Los Angeles.

Max Rafael's arraignment was postponed Thursday until Feb. 2. The 25-year-old and 31-year-old David Ponce have been charged with five special-circumstance murders, which make them eligible for the death penalty.

Ponce is expected to appear in court Friday.

Authorities say a dispute over unpaid drug debts owed to Ponce by one of the victims was the motive for the crime that occurred in November 2008. The bodies of three men and two women were found the day after the shooting in a homeless encampment under a freeway near Long Beach.

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A dispute over unpaid drug debts led to the shooting deaths of five people in a Los Angeles-area homeless encampment more than three years ago, police said.

Long Beach police Chief Jim McDonnell announced the arrests Wednesday of David Ponce, 31, and Max Rafael, 25 - alleged members of the Nuthood Watts criminal street gang. Both men are charged with five special-circumstance murders, one count each of kidnapping to commit another crime and conspiracy to commit a crime, along with gun and gang allegations, McDonnell said.

Both men are eligible for the death penalty. They're being held without bail. Rafael is expected to be arraigned Thursday and Ponce on Friday.

The November 2008 mass killings baffled investigators after the bodies of three men and two women were found on a Sunday morning under a freeway in a seedy neighborhood of warehouses and apartment buildings. A phone tip led authorities to the bodies, which had been there at least a day.

Police said an ongoing feud between Ponce and Lorenzo Villicana, 44, over unpaid drug debts was the motive for the crimes.

"I'd like to make it clear that these victims were not targeted because they were homeless," McDonnell said. "This encounter stemmed from a personal vendetta of one of the suspects as the result of an ongoing dispute with one of the victims over narcotics.

A week before the slayings, Villicana was robbed. On the day of the murders, Ponce enlisted Rafael, and the two men recognized 41-year-old Hamid Shraifat as someone who knew Villicana and might be able to find him, said police Lt. Lloyd Cox. The men kidnapped Shraifat, who led them to the encampment where Villicana was, along with Frederick Neumeier, 53, Katherine Verdun, 24, and Vanessa Malaeplue, 34, a mother of six, authorities said.

Police believe Villicana was shot first and the other victims were killed to ensure there would be no witnesses to the crime.

"Within a few weeks of it, we had a theory that this was a personal incident between the suspect and one of the victims and it was a matter of proving that theory whether it was true or not," Cox said.

Ponce and Rafael were charged Wednesday. News of their arrests comes a day after a suspected serial killer was charged in the stabbing deaths of four homeless men in nearby Orange County over the past month. The timing was pure coincidence, officials said, as police were waiting for prosecutors to file charges.